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OR EMAILAnalog Productivity Experiments: Fighting Blog Fatigue
Seems like the subject of Blogger Burn Out might be a new meme in the making. Some notable bloggers may be suffering from “blog fatigue,” notes Louis Gray. Also check out his follow-up post.
I certainly can relate to blog fatigue. I stare at a computer for hours on end as a necessity of my job, and when I first started taking this blog seriously last fall, I had an insane goal of posting three times a day. Since then there have been much more highs than lows, but I’ve definitely noticed that although the work itself isn’t all that hard, it’s the constant feeling of the work is never done that is tiring. Meaning, you publish a post, get some reaction, and peace, but the next day, it’s that same empty space needing to be filled - day after day after day.
A realization of sorts occurred after a trip to Japan when I realized I was using technology, specifically the Internet, to excess. I was away from the computer for long stretches and it was such a relief.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with some “analog” techniques to avoid technological burn out:
- A limit of two posts each week day and two over the entire weekend.
- Shifting focus of the blog slightly to subjects that aren’t as news / time sensitive (avoiding Techmeme chasing) and therefore take the pressure off of posting quickly.
- The MacBook comes to work only once a week.
- The iPod comes to work once a week.
- I started carrying a Moleskine notebook where I can jot down notes and ideas for blog posts.
- At the end of each day, I mark all articles “read” in Google Reader.
- At the end of each day, after downloading all mail to my desktop Mail client, I delete all the mail in Gmail.
- Using the delayed post time stamp in WordPress to publish posts during the work week.
- I installed several Mac OS X Dashboard widgets that give me updates on Google Analytics and Google Adsense, cutting down on the number of times I was logging into those services to watch grass grow.
Now these are all minor steps. However, I still find I’m using the computer far too much to just dork around. For example, last night I started ripping Battlestar Galactica Season 1 for no clear reason I can discern. I mean, I own the DVDs, so WTF?
Ah, technology.
Any tips on dealing with blog fatigue?
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The biggest problem with blogging is that it never ends. There is always the blog to feed, always new posts to write, etc etc.
When I bailed out of the Tech News game and decided to focus on original content — that was a huge relief from time pressures.
But then I wanted to hit a posting schedule of 5 posts during the week and my linkblog post on saturdays. Still too much work, I don’t get time to write every night and sometimes something will take more than a day to write.
So now I’m aiming for 2-3 original content posts a week, and the linkblog on the weekend. Should be maintainable.
IBlogging at times is not unlike emptying water out of a rowboat constantly threatening to sink.
I like your idea of posting even less and putting more effort into original posts. I am obviously, drifting towards that, but it’s also a scary thing because there is a fear that without the constant pace, the traffic will vanish. However, I have seen more evidence that this is an unfounded fear.
Now I am thinking when I hit the 1 year blogging birthday (or 1,000 posts, whichever comes first) I’ll move to an even lighter schedule. At that point I hope to have enough of a backlog of ridiculous Battlestar Galactica and Blogging About Blogs posts to continue generating traffic just standing still.
I couldn’t help but feel somewhat hypocritical when I noticed that Calacanis, Scoble and others looked like they were burning out. I’ve had days where I’d rather not post anything. I’ve missed a few days in a row and the world didn’t spin off its access. But it is a real issue. Burnout is real at home, at work and on the Web. I’m glad Robert Scoble discussed it as he did, noting his busy schedule.
Dave Winer, the father of blogging (or one of), basically said to post when you want to, not when someone else expects you to.
Hi Louis, thanks for visiting, I enjoyed reading your posts.
Your mention of “when someone else expects you to” I find quite true, because I definitely believe that the audience out there expects a post each day, but that is actually an assumption on my part - I have never asked anybody who reads this blog if that’s true or not. Maybe I should ask?
I did appreciate Scoble’s honesty, too. I can hardly comprehend how he can keep up his pace.
Great thoughts here — I think all bloggers, from the most productive to the very occasional, have to find the right pace, and consistency is always one of the greatest challenges.
I was sick over the weekend, and I like to think that I’m maturing in “fogiving myself” from staying away from the computer and blogging during that time. In the past, such an event may have driven me crazy.
I’ve been posting about 10 times a week, which is pretty close to the maximum that I can handle with all the other online work on my plate. Doing more just pushes me into that excess area, and that can definitely lead to burn-out.
Oh, and meant to add that I love the idea of marking all RSS items as read at the end of the day! This is a trap that I fall into, chasing the never ending pile of stories.
As a reader, if a blog I read doesn’t post for a few days, or even not for a week, I wouldn’t think too much of it or unsubscribe. Any more than that, probably so, though.
I guess my comfort level would mean that if a blogger took a few days off I’d be totally fine with it - so I wonder why I don’t treat my own blog like that?
And lastly, yeah, I think I’m subscribed to nearly 100 feeds, so thinkgs were getting rather overwhelming, where every hour I’d be looking at twenty new stories to look at. Reading just the headlines was becoming like reading an entire article…